’Monumental fear’stems from an idea of mine that started many years ago. My aim was to explore and document the many WWII monuments spread across the whole of the former Yugoslavia. This project is something I had planned long before I had decided on doing my MA in London but never had the opportunity to develop my idea. I wanted to bring to life a part of history that seems forgotten, especially amongst the younger generation of people in Ex-Yugoslavia, and along the way, inform myself of such a turbulent time in my countries history. My idea is to present something forgotten to the new generation, to explore why so much more was invested into art before and to highlight the freedom in the art of that period of time.I collaborated with people from Serbia as well as London and combined fashion with photography, architecture, embroidery, tourism and history. I wanted to present this project to people outside of Ex-Yugoslavia through art and not just history but not involving politics. This was by far the biggest task I have undertaken in my creative life and involved an incredible amount of commitment and research.
Hairstylist Penny Black
Makeup artist Kayla Feeney
Stylist Phoenix-Blu Coyle
First Model Management models Judith Camacho, Alina Portnova
Freelance models Lucy Feng and Marco CR NM Carnemolla
Assistant Napat Gunkham
The human emotion of fear plays a large part in our day-to-day behaviour and is a key feature of artistic works throughout history. Learning how to capture psychological portraits and understanding how people react when facing their fears was crucial in my approach to ‘’Monumental Fear’’. I selected 9 monuments to present in an abstract way using 4 models in a studio in London, further strengthening artistic relations between this country and my homeland. This involved detailed research of each monument to help me build a story behind them and to reveal the reasons of their specific locations and presented a challenge in finding a way to have them represented by models in a studio. Seeing as my project is focused on historical events, I knew that using a medium format camera would emphasise the nostalgic feeling I was aiming for. Presenting a group of people as one monument for me symbolises how these people were united in fighting for their freedom.
